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Uptick in ASI Index Augurs Well for Auto Manufacturers

By Mini Swamy
TMCnet Contributor

It’s December, which means people across the world are on a buying and spending spree. Intelligent businesses exploit this to the full and smile at the increase in its coffers. This buying or spending pattern spreads good humoredly across all sectors of industry, as indicated by Dataium, the largest aggregator of online automotive shopper behavior.

Releasing its monthly Automotive Shopper Intensity report, Dataium noted that there was an uptick in the ASI index, a predictive indicator of automotive retail sales, suggesting that December could be a good month for auto manufacturers.

It attributes the positive impact for U.S. retail SAAR in December to be an offshoot of Hurricane Sandy, which increased November’s numbers by as much as 300 to 400 thousand vehicles, and also to many auto manufacturers commencing their year-end events earlier than usual to attract a greater number of buyers before the New Year.

The midsize sedan segment appeared rather expansive with all but one of the models figuring in the top ten list of ASI for new vehicles, having increased by over 50 percent from the previous month.

Even though there was a decline in shopping intensity in November, the report indicates that there was an overall increase for the domestic automaker, Ford, which managed to get four of its models- F-150, Fusion, Escape and Focus- included in the top ten new vehicles ASI ranking.

In fact, the company’s rather popular F-150, after some initial hiccups, indexed higher than most other vehicles within the truck segment and also ranked highest in ASI for new vehicles, stealing the limelight from the Japanese import, the Toyota Camry, which was the only model to demonstrate a month over month decline of 18 percent.

There also appeared to be a lot of interest being generated for the redesigned sedan, Ford Fusion, which showed the largest month over month growth of vehicles within the segment,

Thus Dataium forecasts the U.S. retail SAAR in December to be about 13 million retail units.

With year-end sales incentives underway and Hurricane Sandy victims being forced to buy new vehicles, the Dataium estimate may well prove true and the midsize Sedan market could be vigorous.

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